The United States Of America

The Constitution And Democracy

Senate
Senate, one of the two equal branches of the Congress. Like its counterpart, the House Of representatives, it was created by the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and began work in 1789, after the ratification of the Constitution. The Senate has two members for each state in the union and has grown in size as the nation has added states. Thus it began with 22 senators -- two of the original 13 states had not yet ratified the Constitution -- and presently has 100 members. As a result of the major compromise between states' rights and popular representation that was necessary in the 1787 convention, the Senate was conceived to be directly representative of the states. Presumably senators would also be more representative of the upper social classes than the more democratic House. Senators were elected by state legislatures from 1789 until 1913, when the Constitution was amended to provide that they be elected directly by the voters.

Qualifications, Perquisites, and Membership
The Constitution provides that a senator must be 30 years of age, have been a citizen of the United States for nine years, and be a resident of the state from which he or she is elected.

As set in 1991, senators receive a basic salary of $125,100, the same as for members of the House of Representatives. Benefits include health and life insurance, a contributory retirement plan, and a tax-deferred savings plan.
Senators receive an annual allowance for maintaining staffs in Washington, D.C., and in their home states, the sum being determined by the population of the state. Funds are provided for senators to rent office space in and travel to and from their home states, and for office supplies and expenses. Senators have the franking privilege use of the mails without charge for official business, with limits set according to state population. Senators also enjoy immunity from some kinds of arrest and legal action.

The average senator is a white male lawyer and a veteran of the armed services. Most senators who are not lawyers are businesspeople. Few women or members of minority groups have been elected to the Senate (in the 102d Congress that met in January 1991, for example, there were only two women and no black senators).

The average senator, unlike the average member of the House of Representatives, can usually count on gaining statewide visibility and perhaps regional or national notice as well if he chooses to speak on important issues of the day. A number of presidential candidates -- both those who declare themselves to be candidates and those who are nominated -- have been senators.

Elections
Until 1913, state legislatures elected senators. Thus the party affiliation of the senator was dependent on which party controlled the state legislature, which in turn was dependent on state elections. Since 1913, senators have had whole states as their constituencies. Every senator has a six-year term, with one third of the seats up for Election every even-numbered year. The two seats for any given state are up for election in different years. Since World War II about three fourths of the senators whose term expired in a given year have sought reelection. About four fifths of the incumbents running win reelection. Thus any given Senate typically meets with about 85 to 90 incumbent senators and 10 to 15 "freshmen." This phenomenon helps create stability in the Senate.

Until about 1880 the average senator at any given time had been in the Senate about four years. By the 1890's the average senator had served more than seven years. With some variations this held true until the 1960's, when the average length of service climbed to more than ten years. At the same time the average age of senators remained almost constant.

Organization and Rules 
The Senate, despite its relatively modest size, has a complex organizational structure and elaborate rules. It relies on standing committees and subcommittees to process most of the substantive legislation flowing through the body. Its substantive business amounts to between 9,000 and 12,000 bills introduced in both houses and up to 700 public laws and several hundred private laws enacted per year. In 1991 there were 16 standing committees, and nearly 100 subcommittees, select committees, and special committees. Given the multiple memberships of senators-most serve on two or three committees and a large number of subcommittees' many decision-making meetings are necessarily attended by only a few senators and staff members. Virtually every senator is the chairman or ranking minority member of some subcommittee. In such a situation a senator who wishes to develop influence over the subject matter of one or two of his subcommittees can do so and can, in effect, become a spokesman for the Senate as a whole.

Given the limited number of senators and the large number of staff members, who work both for individual senators and for committees, the staff is important in the Senate in helping shape legislative products. Many staff members become professionals who remain in the Senate bureaucracy even if the senator for whom they work leaves the Senate.

Both parties in the Senate have also evolved organizational structures that help shape the conduct of business. The floor leaders of the two major parties in the Senate did not emerge as consistently important individuals until the 1880's. A single majority leader and minority leader were not routinely elected until the period between 1911 and 1913. Since that time they have been elected consistently and have, in fact, taken the leading roles as spokesmen for their party to the public, to the president, and within the Senate, although different individuals have performed the role very differently. Other leaders include the party whips, who are, in effect, assistant floor leaders who perform tasks at the discretion of the floor leaders; the chairmen of the party conferences, which are meetings open to all members of the party; and the chairmen of the party policy committees, which were created after World War II.

The formal presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice Presidents Of The United States, although he spends little time in the Senate. His importance in the body is usually limited to those occasions on which he has an opportunity to cast the deciding vote on a controversial measure because the senators themselves are evenly divided. This may happen only a few times during his four-year term. The Senate also elects a president pro tempore who is supposed to preside in the absence of the vice president. In reality, most presiding is done by junior senators.

The Senate has 44 rules, some of which are quite elaborate. Much of the time, however, the Senate proceeds on the basis of "unanimous consent" agreements worked out between the floor leaders of the two parties. This gives the Senate considerable flexibility as it conducts its legislative business.

The one rule for which the Senate is widely known is that pertaining to the cloture of debate. The Senate's traditions include "unlimited debate." A relatively small number of senators can, by manipulating the rules and procedures of the Senate, prevent legislative action for a number of days or weeks or even months. In 1917 the Senate created a procedure whereby two thirds of the senators could close debate. On March 7, 1975, the Senate amended the rule so that a vote by three fifths of the Senate's full membership (60 senators) would suffice to invoke cloture. In the years between 1917 and 1975, the two-thirds cloture rule had been invoked 24 times.

Senate Development and Impact on Public Policy
Before the Civil War the Senate enjoyed periods in which it appeared to dominate public policy. This was especially true in the 1830's, 1840's, and 1850's, when the country and the Senate were violently divided over the issue of slavery. Leading senators such as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. CALHOUN  dwarfed lackluster presidents as spokesmen for contending views on slavery and on other issues as well. After the Civil War the Senate underwent a period in which power was centralized in the hands of leading party figures, senators began serving much longer periods, seniority became the criterion for advancement to committee chairmanships, and various party committees and organizations were established. This process was basically completed by 1895, and the "modern" Senate had come into being: a Senate with important, although not always dominant, party leaders constrained by the presence of large numbers of career senators advancing in large part by seniority.

The Senate has three exclusive Constitutional powers in addition to a number of powers it shares with the House of Representatives. First, the Senate sits as a court in cases in which Impeachments against federal officials have been brought by the House. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote. In its entire history the Senate has received only 12 cases and has convicted only 4 individuals, all federal judges. In its most famous impeachment case, the Senate acquitted President Andrew JOHNSON  by one vote in 1868.

Second, the Senate must confirm presidential nominations by majority vote. In the 91st Congress (1969-1971) more than 134,000 nominations were received, most of them of military officers. The nominations that receive most attention are those for cabinet positions and for the Supreme Court. Other federal judges and ambassadors also require Senate confirmation and sometimes involve controversy. The Senate usually confirms appointments, sometimes after lengthy hearings. But the Senate has also shown its willingness to rebuff the President. This occurred in the cases of 8 individuals nominated for cabinet positions, the last of which was in 1959 when President EISENHOWER 's nominee for secretary of commerce was rejected, and of 11 individuals nominated for the Supreme Court, including 2 nominees put forward by President NIXON . The Senate has also refused to take action on other nominees, thus causing a president to withdraw the nomination to replace it with another one.

Third, the Senate must, by two-thirds vote, ratify treaties the president makes with foreign governments. On 11 occasions the Senate has refused to grant ratification, although in all cases the supporting votes outnumbered the opposing votes. The most important such occasion was in 1920, when the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, which contained the Covenant of the League of Nations as well as the peace terms with Germany. By contrast, the Senate in 1960 rejected a relatively minor protocol involving compulsory settlement of disputes arising under sea law. The Senate has ratified all other treaties, but sometimes only after lengthy debate.

In addition to its special powers the Senate shares with the House general responsibility for processing a vast amount of legislation each year. On some measures senators and their staff members initiate legislative proposals. On other measures they work closely with representatives of the executive branch or with the private sector to generate legislative proposals. On some measures the Senate reacts to initiatives coming from the House. On many measures both the House and the Senate are basically reacting to initiatives coming from the executive branch. They can pass these measures as proposed, amend them before passing them, or reject them. Usually both the Senate and the House make some sort of input to any major piece of legislation before it returns to the president for his signature.

During the 1950's a group of liberal Senators generated a number of ideas that later became law, and during the 1960's the Senate supported liberal domestic legislation far more often than the House did. Beginning in the late 1960's the Senate sought to reassert itself as an independent influence in foreign affairs, largely as a negative reaction to the U.S. military involvement in the war in Indochina.

In general, senators are jealous of their prerogatives and wish to maintain their independence of the president and of the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, the modern Senate has cooperated closely with those entities during the several major bursts of lawmaking activity that have produced the basic domestic and foreign programs characteristic of the national government in the 1960's and 1970's. Much of the time political and institutional conditions prevent swift and dramatic action, but when the conditions permit such action the Senate has shown itself capable of participating fully and importantly in the shaping of major changes in public policy.

Randall B. Ripley
Ohio State University
For Further Reading 
Evans, C. Lawrence, Leadership in Committee: A Comparative Analysis of Leadership in the U.S. Senate (Univ. of Mich. Press 1991)
Foley, Michael, The New Senate: Liberal Influence on a Conservative Institution (Yale Univ. Press 1980)
Haynes, George H., The Senate of the United States, 2 vols. (1938; reprint, Russell & Russell 1960)
Hess, Stephen, The Ultimate Insiders: U.S. Senators in the National Media (Brookings Institution 1986)
Matthews, Donald R., U.S. Senators and Their World (1960; reprint, Greenwood Press 1980)
Ripley, Randall B., The Congress: Process and Policy, 4th ed. (Norton 1988)